Country Ever After

For the past year, my yaya sisters and I have been planning a wedding for our dear friend, Kristen. After 11 years together (Kristen and Seth), months of schematic drawings and dress/antique shopping, and many sleepless nights... the day finally arrived on 3.26.2011 at a Christmas tree farm in south Georgia called Springhill. There are even beautiful peacocks there, so she wins! Our planning took place mostly through long distance Skype sessions, Atlanta visits, and South Georgia wedding showers. Being far away from your sisters is hard enough as it is, but to plan a wedding is near impossible. The operative word there is "near." We did it!

Firstly, let me introduce you to my yayas.

 From left to right: Liz, Becca, yours truly, and Kristen

Kristen had quite a few showers, but the only one we were able to make was the one that we threw in January in Valdosta, GA where we all went to school together. Kristen and I were both nannies in college and babysat in the same golf course comunity. We made some lasting friendships with the families there, and we decided to have the shower at the home she used to nanny at. It's beautiful and huge, perfect. This served as a "central" meeting point between Kristen's friends in Florida and us here in Atlanta. Liz, Kristen, and I carpooled down, and Becca drove up from Naples, FL. When we finally got settled into our hotel, we were shortly notified that the city of Valdosta was out of water. Perfect again. We don't need water for showers and food prep....no big. Heart attack! Long story short, it all came together. Here are some pictures:

Kristen's Matron of Honor

All Bridemaids Minus One



Sex and the City martinis at dinner to celebrate the success

And then there was the bachelorette in Atlanta. We stayed at the Georgian Terrace which was beautiful and a perfect location for everything we wanted to do in the city. We gabbed for hours while we shopped, had a lingerie shower, played stupid games, drank coffee, and then drank and danced the night away. Best group of girls EVER.

Lingerie Shower



Atlanta Station shopping with the ladies

Shout

New sisters

Wedding day recap:

• no sleep and only a SMALL McDonald's coffee...murder
• hundreds of yards worth of muslin and burlap to be hung
• find our way around in the straight country
• all DIY projects to be completed (the majority of the wedding consisted of this)
• deal with the RAIN

I could go on for days, well....weeks, about every detail that went into the wedding. But I will let you see for yourself! The only moment I want to capture in words for you is rain. The rehearsal dinner was beautiful and hot and we had a traditional south Georgia favorite- a spicy low country boil. But, I can't say the same for the wedding day. We were so busy doing hair, makeup, last minute decor, and throwing bouquets at each other as to not forget them (it's a wonder how no groomsmen bled out as I threw together pins and boutonnieres on their tuxes)- no one was paying attention to the weather. Except for the groom. Seth's alias is "Weatherman," so that's pretty self-explanatory. He gave us a call about the weather as we were getting Kristen in her dress (we were running late, big surprise huh?) We tried to ignore the panic and just kept going, all hopping in random cars to get to the barn (the church was where we got dressed, but the barn and field were the destination for the actual wedding.)  We finished up more last minute decor details in our sweatpants and tee's, and finally got a minute to go into the office in the barn while Kristen and Seth wrapped up their pictures. We slapped some lipstick on, jumped into our dresses, and ran into the field with the groomsmen. We were able to take a few pictures and then..... the sky fell down on us. By every definition. I like to call this moment the "moment Carrie realizes Big isn't coming." It was that dramatic. Side note: If you haven't seen SATC, don't bother reading my blog! References occur too often to not know.

We stopped taking pictures, and all the bridesmaids and Kristen ran into the office. Kristen held it together like a big girl and after thirty minutes of the bridemaids threatening straggling guests who wanted to steal a peak at Kristen before the ceremony (simply because when the door was open the rain sounded like a tsunami and upset ALL of us), the rain finally stopped. Looking back,  we lied more in one hour than we have in all our years combined. "No, it won't rain!" "No, the programs didn't get wet." "Actually the rain is perfect, the photographers almost forgot to take pictures of the details!"  All tears were dried (Kristen cried less than a couple of the bridesmaids...ha), and we were off! And drumroll please...... here are the recently revealed wedding pictures. The bad ones of us working and sweating are compliments of us, and the beautiful professional pictures were done by Red Fly Studio. Those girls were so talented and friendly...and apparently waterproof!

Been working for two days...

Burlap for the bar

SATC moment

Before

Reception

Planners

Kristen's breathtaking dress

K+S

Look at my sassy girl!

The sweetest little flower girl ever, Abi

The details

I spy a peacock

More details

Driveway to get to the barn with an old painted door to lead the way

Kristen's homemade altar her father-in-law built and stained for her

All of us!

best friends.

Boots

Look at that beautiful green grass. The rain did something right!

Eat your heart out Martha Stewart, this is DIY at it's finest.

And they lived country ever after.